learning

When I haven't posted in awhile its so hard to know where to begin...

We're studying Romans right now with the girls at PDE.  Last week was all about how Abraham BELIEVED God when He promised him a son.  It didn't make any sense at all.  He was foolish in the world's eyes to believe such a crazy thing.  And yet... he believed.  And it says that Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness.

Where does our salvation come from?  It is a constant conversation that I have over and over again with these girls.  Good works are great, we were made to become more and more like our Heavenly Father, but they do NOT save us.  Our salvation is from grace, through faith.  And if we know God and we know that He is our Father, a good father who cannot tell a lie, then we know that we can trust Him.

I never give the girls Bible study homework, but this week I did.  Find five verses in the Bible where God gives us promises and then write down those promises and pray that God will give you the faith to believe them!!!

Friday was a hard day.  We had Bible study and then after that I had a conversation with K where she informed me that she was leaving.  She was disobedient and hadn't gotten all her signatures and it didn't matter to her, she would live on the streets if she had to, but she was done.  A very long conversation followed and it all came down to not being willing to submit to the rules of the house in regards to disciplining her son.  It is so ingrained in her to treat him badly when she is angry.  But she also wants to rebel against any discipline since she was treated so abusively in the name of discipline.  She is having a really hard time understanding the balance of what it means to love her son enough to correct and teach him without screaming at him and mistreating him when she is frustrated.  Its hard.  I'm a mom.  I get that.  I don't want to admit how many times I have lost my patience with my kids and how it has caused me to react to them.  Being a good mom is a fight, a hard one, and even harder when you don't have any Godly example from your own childhood.

In the end I asked her to reconsider, to take a day and to think it over.  I asked her to search out God's promises for parents in the Scripture and what He has to say about discipline and love.  In the end I don't know how much searching of Scripture she actually did... but when I went back to talk to her on Saturday she was a much more humble soul.  She is willing to recognize and admit that she has a lot to learn.  She is willing to commit to learning what it looks like to raise her child and not just feed and clothe him.  I say that is a victory!  And as she does that we will keep pointing her back to the promises of God and the example that we have in Him.  We can TRUST His promises to equip us and give us the wisdom that we need.  We can trust that ultimately our children are His.  We can see that His love for us is too great than to leave us in our sin and that he disciplines us as His children so that we can learn to be more like Jesus.

These girls have long roads to walk... thank you for loving them enough to pray for them.  We are so thankful.